FIZZ1 (found in inflammatory zone 1), is a protein induced in murine lung in an ovalbumin-induced asthma model.1 Besides its induction in the bronchial mucosal epithelial cells, FIZZ1 was also induced in type II pneumocytes and it inhibited NGF-induced survival of DRG neurons and NGF-mediated increase in neuronal CGRP content.1 Holcomb et al also reported that FIZZ1 is a secreted protein sharing the consensus sequence of 10 cysteine residues in the C-terminus (1CX112CX83CX4CX35CX106CX7CX8CX99C10C) with two other murine genes expressed respectively in intestinal crypt epithelial (FIZZ2) and white adipose tissue (FIZZ3) and two related human genes (human FIZZ1 and human FIZZ3).1 Later, FIZZ3 was shown to be implicated in type II diabetes mellitus and was renamed as resistin.2 FIZZ1 and FIZZ2 were renamed as resistin-like molecule α (RELMα) and β (RELMβ), respectively.3 Human FIZZ1, however, was renamed as human RELMβ.3 Recently, FIZZ1 was found in macrophages4 and in the stromal vascular fraction of adipose tissue,5 and it inhibited adipocyte differentiation.6 However, the function of FIZZ1 remained unclear.
There is a need in the art for effective methods of treating pulmonary hypertension, cancer, cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac ischemia, wounds, and other diseases relating to neoangiogenesis and vasoconstriction.